Monday, March 27, 2006

The Devil is Beating His Wife

would seem to be an idiom used when it rains yet the sun still shines. This I've learned from the American Dialect Test.

Of course I also took the test. My results:
75% General American English
15% Yankee
10% Dixie
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern
So I've lived most of my life in the midwest, but have managed to fool this 20 question, exhaustively rigorous internet test into thinking that's not the case. Sadly, there were no questions on the proper pronunciation of "advertisement."

Which sends its primary stress to the antepenult.

Being a bit of an idiom addict myself, I really dig the phrase "The Devil is Beating His Wife", mostly because it is such a weird thing when it's raining yet sunny. A quick google found out that it's also the name of a song by Pedro the Lion, a band I don't know. Here are the lyrics to The Devil... song by Pedro. They're salty but not bad at all. Ok, maybe they've got a little corn to them, but "watching the scenery bleed/Into each similar scene" is a quality collection of fourteen syllables/eight words. Then again, since this site used to be similarselection slash superelectric, you might say I'm a sucker for sibilants.

3 comments:

Amanda G. said...

that is an idiom I will not be adding to my repertoire.

Cool test. My results:
75% General American English
15% Upper Midwestern
10% Yankee
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern

Having spent all but four years of my life smack dab in the middle of the midwest.

Amanda G. said...

okay, the last line of my comment should continue to read:

", my score of 0% midwestern kind of suprises me."

Anonymous said...

Mine:

80% General American English
10% Upper Midwestern
10% Yankee
0% Dixie
0% Midwestern

The only regional dialects I use are from places I have never lived. I am starting to question the accuracy of the test.